Dynamic management of computing platform resources

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention provide for methods for the management of logically partitioned computing resources of a data processing system configured with a plurality of hypervisors that each manages one or more logical partitions of the computing resources. Each hypervisor and logical partitions managed thereby are allocated to a domain of a plurality of domains. Logical partitions and hypervisors allocated to a first domain are monitored to determine whether additional computing resources are needed for the first domain. Responsive to determining that additional computing resources are needed for the first domain, a second domain having available computing resources is determined. At least a portion of the available computing resources of the second domain are used by the first domain.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/662,799, filed on Mar. 19, 2015 by Narsimha R. Challa et al., andentitled DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING PLATFORM RESOURCES, the entiredisclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to computing systems, and moreparticularly to management of logically partitioned computing resourcesand the allocation of such logically partitioned computing resources.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern requirements for a computer system may require that a computer beutilized to run several operating environments, or operating systems, atonce. In a typical embodiment, a logically partitioned data processingsystem may run a plurality of operating systems in one or more logicalpartitions. Each operating system resides in a logical partition, witheach logical partition allocated at least part of a processor, an entireprocessor, or multiple processors from the computer. Moreover in dataprocessing systems of cloud computing environments, computing resourcesof the data processing system may be allocated to different customers.

Consequently, there is a continuing need for improving management ofcomputing resources in data processing systems and particularly dataprocessing systems implemented in cloud computing environments.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide for methods for the management oflogically partitioned computing resources of a data processing systemconfigured with a plurality of hypervisors that each manages one or morelogical partitions of the computing resources. Each hypervisor andlogical partitions managed thereby are allocated to a domain of aplurality of domains. Logical partitions and hypervisors allocated to afirst domain are monitored to determine whether additional computingresources are needed for the first domain. Responsive to determiningthat additional computing resources are needed for the first domain, asecond domain having available computing resources is determined. Atleast a portion of the available computing resources of the seconddomain are used by the first domain.

These and other advantages will be apparent in light of the followingfigures and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and,together with a general description of the invention given above and thedetailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explainthe principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 provides a block diagram of a hardware components of a dataprocessing system and/or platform that may be logically partitionedconsistent with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 provides a block diagram of components of a server of the dataprocessing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 provides a block diagram of a logical partition configurationthat may be implemented on one or more servers of the data processingsystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations that maybe performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to manage computingresource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations thatmay be performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to managecomputing resource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart that illustrates a sequence of operations thatmay be performed by the data processing system of FIG. 1 to managecomputing resource usage of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic illustration of an example domain levelallocation of computing resources of the data processing system of FIG.1.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic illustration of an example domain levelallocation of computing resources of the data processing system of FIG.1.

FIG. 14 is a table that provides an example temporary allocation ofcomputing resources of the data processing system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention provide systems, methods, and computerprogram products that manage platform resources of a data processingsystem. Consistent with embodiments of the invention, the dataprocessing system may be configured with logically partitioned computingresources, and the data processing system may be configured with aplurality of hypervisors that each manages one or more logicalpartitions of the computing resources. In general, domains may bedetermined for the data processing system. As will be appreciated, adomain generally comprises at least one hypervisor and one or morelogical partitions of computing resources that may be managed by the atleast one hypervisor. For a data processing system all computingresources may be allocated to one or more domains such that clientsand/or workloads may be domain specific and may only cause operations tobe performed on a specific domain. In some embodiments, some of thedomains may correspond to customers (e.g., cloud computing clients). Foreach domain, one or more hypervisors may be allocated to the domain suchthat the logical partitions managed by the allocated hypervisors areallocated to the domain. In some embodiments, one domain of theplurality may be a default domain, into which all hypervisors areinitially allocated. As clients of the data processing system utilizethe data processing system for processing workloads, hypervisors may beallocated to domains.

Allocation of a hypervisor to a domain may reserve the logicallypartitioned computing resources of the hypervisor for clients (and usersof such clients) associated with the domain. In a data processing systemprocessing workloads for a plurality of clients, allocating logicallypartitioned computing resources to domains may thereby isolate computingresources such that only clients associated with the domain canuse/access such computing resources. As will be appreciated, in a dataprocessing system implemented for a cloud computing environment, theisolation of computing resources may be needed to facilitate use of thedata processing system by a plurality of clients/customers. For example,isolation of the hypervisors and logically partitioned resources mayprevent hardware cache poisoning, possible cache attacks, possibleperformance impacts resulting from shared resources, etc.

Consistent with embodiments of the invention, sharing of computingresources within a domain may be supported, such that a virtual machinecreated in a first hypervisor of a domain may be migrated to a secondhypervisor of the domain if additional computing resources are needed.However, virtual machine creation, migration, booting, and/or processingmay be restricted across domains, such that a user not associated with aparticular domain may not create, migrate, and/or boot a virtual machineon computing resources allocated to the particular domain. Generally,logically partitioned computing resources allocated to a particulardomain will not be accessible/visible to clients and hypervisors ofother domains. Therefore, embodiments of the invention facilitatemanagement of computing resources of a data processing system byallocating logical partitions of such computing resources to domains.

Numerous variations and modifications will be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art, as will become apparent from the descriptionbelow. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the specificimplementations discussed herein.

Hardware and Software Environment

Turning now to the figures, and particularly to FIG. 1, this figure is adiagrammatic illustration of a data processing system 10 that includesone or more interconnected servers 12, where each server includes one ormore processing nodes 14. As will be appreciated, the computingresources of the data processing system 10 may be utilized by one ormore customers/clients to process workloads. Consistent with embodimentsof the invention, the management of the computing resources of the dataprocessing system 10 for each client may include allocation of thecomputing resources to domains.

Turning now to FIG. 2, this figure provides a block diagram illustratingcomponents of the data processing system 10 consistent with someembodiments of the invention. As shown, the data processing system 10includes one or more servers 12 that comprise one or more processors 22including at least one hardware-based microprocessor and one or morememory resources 24 coupled to the processors 22. In general, theprocessors 22 and memory resources 24 of each server 12 may beconfigured on one or more processing nodes 14 of the server 12. Thememory resources 24 may comprise memory modules and many include, forexample, random access memory (RAM) devices comprising the main storageof the data processing system 10, as well as any supplemental levels ofmemory, e.g., cache memories, non-volatile or backup memories (e.g.,programmable or flash memories), read-only memories, etc. In addition,memory resources 24 may be considered to include memory storagephysically located elsewhere in the data processing system 10, e.g., anycache memory in a microprocessor, as well as any storage capacity usedas a virtual memory, e.g., as stored on a mass storage device or onanother computer coupled to the data processing system 10. In general,memory resources 24 may be organized into one or more memory pagesand/or memory locations that may be distributed among one or more memorymodules configured in the data processing system 10.

For interface with a user or operator, the data processing system 10 mayinclude a user interface 26 incorporating one or more user input/outputdevices, e.g., a keyboard, a pointing device, a display, a printer, etc.Otherwise, data may be communicated to and from another computer orterminal over a network interface 28 coupled to a communication network(e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, acellular voice/data network, one or more high speed bus connections,interchassis communication connects, and/or other such types ofcommunication networks). The data processing system 10 also may be incommunication with one or more mass storage devices, which may be, forexample, internal hard disk storage devices, external hard disk storagedevices, external databases, storage area network devices, etc. As willbe appreciated, physical resources may refer to the processors 22,memory resources 24, user interface components 26, and/or networkinterface components 28.

For a logically-partitioned data processing system 10, the dataprocessing system may operate under the control of one or more operatingsystems 30 and may execute or otherwise rely upon various computersoftware applications, components, programs, objects, modules, engines,data structures, etc. Moreover, the data processing system may includeone or more instances of a hypervisor 32, where such hypervisors 32generally manage execution of the operating systems 30 on the physicalresources (e.g., processors 22 and memory 24) by virtualizing thephysical resources into virtualized hardware resources. Consistent withembodiments of the invention, the data processing system may furtheroperate under the control of a system management component 34. Ingeneral, the system management component manages the allocation ofcomputing resources and/or hypervisors to domains and enforces policyrestrictions associated with such domains. As will be appreciated, thesystem management component may provide an interface through whichadministrators may set policies, configurations, and/or attributes forthe data processing system, hypervisors, and/or computing resources. Ingeneral, the hardware resources and/or virtualized hardware resourcesmay be referred to as computing resources and/or platform resources. Forinstance, a hypervisor 32 may intercept requests for resources fromoperating systems 30 to globally share and allocate resources. Thehypervisor 32 may allocate physical processing cycles of sharedprocessor 22 resources by way of virtual processors for a logicalpartition. As will be appreciated, the virtualization of the physicalresources may be referred to as the computing resources of the dataprocessing system 10, where such computing resources not only refer tothe physical hardware resources, but may also refer to further refer tothe virtualization thereof to divide usage of such physical resourcesbased on processing cycles.

In general, each server 12 may comprise one or more processing nodes 14,where each processing node 14 may be configured with one or moreprocessors 22, one or more memory resources 24, and/or other suchhardware/physical resources (e.g., network interface adapters, highspeed communication bus adapters, etc.). Therefore, a processor 22 maybe considered local to a memory resource 24 configured on a commonprocessing node. The processor 22 may be considered non-local to memoryresources 24 not configured on the same processing node.

FIG. 3 provides a block diagram of a virtual processing environment thatmay be implemented in the data processing system of FIG. 2. In FIG. 3,system 10 includes software components and resources that implement alogically partitioned processing environment comprising logicallypartitioned computing resources consistent with embodiments of theinvention. As such, FIG. 3 may include a computing architecturecharacterized as a virtual machine design, such as virtual machinedesigns developed by International Business Machines Corporation. Asshown, the data processing system 10 includes one or more servers 12implementing a plurality of logical partitions 50 (labeled ‘PARTITION 1’and ‘PARTITION N’) that may share computing resources of one or moreprocessors 22 configured in one or more servers 12.

As shown, each logical partition 50 may host one or more operatingsystems 30 (labeled ‘OPERATING SYSTEM 1’ and ‘OPERATING SYSTEM N’),where each operating system 30 may be allocated one or more virtualprocessors (labeled ‘VP’) 52 and logical memory 54, i.e., computingresources. In general, the processors 22 of the one or more servers 12may execute software configured to simulate multiple virtual processors52. In addition, the logical partitions 50 may logically comprise aportion of the data processing system's 10 memory resources 24 and/orother resources, which may be referred to as the logical memory 54 of alogical partition 50 that may be allocated to one or more operatingsystems 30 hosted on the logical partition 50. Collectively, theresources of a logical partition 50 may be referred to as computingresources of the logical partition 50. Each operating system 30 maycontrol the primary operations of its logical partition 50 in a mannersimilar to the operating system of a non-partitioned computer. Eachlogical partition 30 may execute in a separate memory space, representedby logical memory 54.

Moreover, each logical partition 50 may be statically and/or dynamicallyallocated a portion of the available resources in the data processingsystem 10. For example and as discussed herein, each logical partition50 may share one or more processors 22, as well as a portion of theavailable memory space for use in logical memory 54. In this manner, agiven processor 22 may be utilized by more than one logical partition50. As shown, a hypervisor 32 (labeled ‘HYPERVISOR l’ to ‘HYPERVISOR N’)may manage one or more logical partitions 50 of the computing resourcesby assigning virtualized resources to one or more operating systems 30executing thereon. In particular, for workload processing, a hypervisor32 may divide processing cycles of hardware resources among theoperating systems 30 of the logical partitions 50 to thereby performtasks of one or more workloads of the operating systems 30.

Each logical partition 50 may be configured to implement a virtualmachine, where a virtual machine is generally a software implementationof a machine that executes like physical computing resources. Ingeneral, a virtual machine supports the execution of an operatingsystem, where the virtual machine emulates existing hardwarearchitecture, such that multiple instances of virtual machines (andoperating systems) may be implemented on the hardware/computingresources such that the computing resources are efficiently utilized.

It will be appreciated that the present invention may be a system, amethod, and/or a computer program product. The computer program productmay include a computer readable storage medium (or media) havingcomputer readable program instructions thereon for causing one or moreprocessors to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like,and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the drawings illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

In addition, computer readable program instructions, of which one ormore may collectively be referred to herein as “program code,” may beidentified herein based upon the application within which suchinstructions are implemented in a specific embodiment of the invention.However, it should be appreciated that any particular programnomenclature that follows is used merely for convenience, and thus theinvention should not be limited to use solely in any specificapplication identified and/or implied by such nomenclature. Furthermore,given the typically endless number of manners in which computer programsmay be organized into routines, procedures, methods, modules, objects,and the like, as well as the various manners in which programfunctionality may be allocated among various software layers that areresident within a typical computer (e.g., operating systems, libraries,API's, applications, applets, etc.), it should be appreciated that theinvention is not limited to the specific organization and allocation ofprogram functionality described herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the example environmentillustrated in FIGS. 1-3 is not intended to limit the present invention.Indeed, those skilled in the art will recognize that other alternativehardware and/or software environments may be used without departing fromthe scope of the invention.

Computing Resource Allocation and Management

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to allocation andmanagement of platform resources in a logically partitioned dataprocessing system. In some embodiments of the invention, the dataprocessing system may be implemented in a cloud computingplatform/environment that supports and/or processes workloads of one ormore clients. In some embodiments, the cloud computing environmentimplemented data processing system is a multi-client computingenvironment. Embodiments of the invention may allocate hypervisors ofthe data processing system to domains, where such allocation alsoallocates computing resources managed by the hypervisor to the domain.

Generally, security and performance present issues in data processingsystems/platforms of cloud computing environments, since suchenvironments generally host applications and sensitive data fordifferent clients (e.g., customers). For example, one security andperformance issue corresponds to maintaining server and/or virtualmachine isolation between customers. Generally, security reasons,compliance rules, and/or performance impact at the virtual machine levelmay necessitate server, hypervisor, and/or virtual machine isolation. Asanother example, two clients (e.g., two customers) of a cloud computingplatform may be competitors. In this example, the two clients may desireisolation of computing resources in the data processing system becauseof potential system/hardware cache poisoning, possible cache attacks,possible performance impacts resulting from shared resources, etc.

As will be appreciated, a cloud computing environment may comprise aplurality of hypervisors, where the hypervisors may serve a plurality ofclients, where the clients may have different security and performancerequirements. For example, a first client may not permit execution of avirtual machine with a hypervisor that is also executing a virtualmachine for a second client. As another example, some clients mayspecify clients/customer with which they do not wish to share computingresources. Hence, in such cloud computing environments and dataprocessing platforms and systems thereof computing resource managementmay be client specific, where the policies, settings, and requirementsof each client may vary.

Embodiments of the invention provide a system for managing computingresources of a data processing system by allocating computing resourcesto domains. In some embodiments, for each client of a data processingsystem, the data processing system may comprise a respective domain.Each domain may be allocated resources based at least in part onperformance requirements of a respective client. Furthermore, policiesand/or settings may be uniquely defined for each domain, such thatsecurity and/or performance specifications for clients may be managed atthe domain level. Therefore, embodiments of the invention improvecomputing resources management of cloud computing environments byfacilitating a computing resource allocation level above hypervisorlevel. With such domain level computing resource allocation, hypervisoroperations, user operations, and/or virtual machine actions may besecurely managed on the domain. Moreover, allocation of the computingresources into one or more domains may facilitate computing resourceallocation to each client based on performance requirements, and suchallocation may facilitate computing resource sharing based on securitypolicies of each client.

FIG. 4 provides flowchart 100 that illustrates a sequence of operationsthat may be performed by the data processing system 10 consistent withsome embodiments of the invention to manage and/or allocate computingresources of the data processing system (i.e., platform resources). Asshown, a data processing system may initialize/startup (block 102). Ingeneral, the data processing system is configured with logicallypartitioned computing resources that are managed by hypervisors. Atstartup, the data processing system may allocate all computing resourcesto a default domain (block 104). As will be appreciated, each hypervisormay generally have access to logical memory of logical partitions thatthe hypervisor manages, and in some embodiments of the invention, adomain identifier may be set in a memory associated with each hypervisorto thereby allocate each hypervisor to the default domain. In someembodiments of the invention, each hypervisor is associated with anon-volatile random access memory at which a domain identifier may beset.

Based on clients using the data processing system (i.e., customers ofthe data processing system), the data processing system may determineone or more domains (block 106). In some embodiments, the dataprocessing system may determine a domain for each of the clients. Aswill be appreciated, a domain generally reserves computing resourcesonly for clients associated with the domain. Therefore, in manyapplications, computing resource exclusivity may be desired. Forexample, if the data processing system is implemented as a cloudcomputing platform, a first client and a second client may utilize thedata processing system for processing workloads. In this example, if thefirst client and second client are competitors, the first client and thesecond client may not wish to share resources. In this example, a firstdomain may be determined for the first client and a second domain may bedetermined for the second client.

The data processing system allocates one or more hypervisors to eachdetermined domain (block 108). By allocating hypervisors to the domains,the data processing system allocates computing resources managed by eachhypervisor to a respective domain. In general, allocation may be basedat least in part on client computing requirements. For example, a domainfor a client processing large workloads may be allocated more computingresources. In other embodiments, the computing resources of a dataprocessing system may be allocated to each domain approximately evenly.Based on the allocation of the hypervisors to the domains, the computingresources of the data processing system are managed (block 110). Ingeneral, management of computing resource usage may include limitingaccess to computing resources of a first domain by hypervisors of asecond domain, restricting virtual machine creation and/or migration,and/or restricting client actions based on a domain associated with aclient. Furthermore, usage of computing resources may generally refer toutilization of the computing resources to perform operations. Forexample, usage of the computing resources may include, processing tasksof a workload with the computing resources, executing a virtual machineon the computing resources, performing operations associated with a userrequest with the computing resources, and/or other such actions,operations, etc.

FIG. 5 provides a flowchart 150 that illustrates a sequence ofoperations that may be performed by the data processing system 10consistent with some embodiments of the invention to manage computingresource usage of a domain. In these embodiments, the data processingsystem 10 may monitor the logically partitioned computing resources of adomain (block 152) to detect any virtual machine creation requests(block 154). If a virtual machine creation is not detected (“N” branchof block 154), the data processing system continues monitoring thecomputing resources of the domain (block 152). In response to detectinga virtual machine creation request for computing resources of the domain(“Y” branch of block 154), the data processing system determines thehypervisor attempting to create the virtual machine (block 156). Thedata processing system determines the domain of the creating hypervisorand the client associated with the virtual machine (block 158).

The data processing system determines whether to create the virtualmachine on the computing resources of the domain based at least in parton the domain of the creating hypervisor and/or the domain associatedwith the requesting client (block 160). If the creating hypervisorand/or the requesting client are not associated with the domain (“N”branch of block 160), the data processing system denies the virtualmachine creation request (block 162). If the creating hypervisor and/orthe requesting client are associated with the domain (“Y” branch ofblock 160), the data processing system creates the virtual machine onthe computing resources of the domain (block 164). After denying thevirtual machine creation request (block 162) or creating the virtualmachine (block 164), the data processing system continues monitoring thecomputing resources for the domain (block 152).

Turning now to FIG. 6, this figure provides a flowchart 200 thatillustrates a sequence of operations that may be performed by the dataprocessing system to manage computing resource usage of a domainconsistent with embodiments of the invention. As shown, the dataprocessing system may monitor computing resources allocated to a domain(block 202) to detect virtual machine migration to the computingresources of the domain (block 204). If the data processing system doesnot detect a virtual machine migration request for the computingresources of the domain (“N” branch of block 204), the data processingsystem continues monitoring the computing resources of the domain (block202).

In response to detecting a virtual machine migration request tocomputing resources of the domain (“Y” branch of block 204), the dataprocessing system determines the hypervisor requesting the migration(block 206). The data processing system determines the domain of therequesting hypervisor and/or client (block 208), and the data processingsystem determines whether to migrate the virtual machine based on thedomain of the hypervisor and/or client and the domain of the computingresources (block 210).

If the hypervisor and/or client are not associated with the domain towhich the computing resources are allocated (“N” branch of block 210),the data processing system denies the virtual machine migration request(block 212). If the requesting hypervisor and/or client is associatedwith the domain of the computing resources (“Y” branch of block 210),the data processing system migrates the virtual machine to the computingresources of the domain (block 214). After denying the virtual machinemigration request (block 212) or migrating the virtual machine (block214), the data processing system continues monitoring the computingresources for the domain (block 202).

FIG. 7 provides a flowchart 250 that illustrates a sequence ofoperations that may be performed by the data processing system to manageusage of computing resources of a domain. As shown, the data processingsystem may monitor the computing resources of the domain (block 252) todetect an administrative action and/or user request (block 254). If thedata processing system does not detect a user request for the computingresources of the domain (“N” branch of block 254), the data processingsystem continues monitoring the computing resources of the domain (block252).

In response to detecting a user request for computing resources of thedomain (“Y” branch of block 254), the data processing system determinesthe hypervisor associated with the user request (block 256). The dataprocessing system determines the domain of the hypervisor associatedwith the user request and/or client (block 258), and the data processingsystem determines whether to perform an action of the user request basedon the domain of the hypervisor and/or client and the domain of thecomputing resources (block 260). If the hypervisor and/or client are notassociated with the domain to which the computing resources areallocated (“N” branch of block 260), the data processing system deniesuser request (block 262). If the requesting hypervisor and/or client isassociated with the domain of the computing resources (“Y” branch ofblock 260), the data processing system performs the requested action onthe computing resources of the domain (block 264). After denying theuser request (block 262) or performing the requested action (block 264),the data processing system continues monitoring the computing resourcesfor the domain (block 252).

Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 5-7, embodiments of the invention maymanage usage of computing resources of the data processing system basedon domains. In some embodiments, allocating computing resources andhypervisors to domains facilitates isolation of resources for differentclients in a cloud computing environment. As will be appreciated,embodiments of the invention logically partition a data processingsystem into smaller entities, i.e., domains. Each domain may berepresented by a profile in a system management component. Each domainmay be allocated one or more hypervisors. Furthermore, embodiments ofthe invention may generally monitor logical partitions to detect virtualmachine actions (i.e., virtual machine creation, virtual machinebooting, and/or virtual machine migration), and embodiments of theinvention may determine whether to permit or restrict such virtualmachine action based at least in part on the domain of the logicalpartition, the domain of a hypervisor initiating such virtual machineaction, and/or the domain of a user requesting such virtual machineaction.

As described, operations, such as virtual machine migration, may beallowed only within a domain. Similarly, virtual machine creation may berestricted by domain and for authorized users (i.e., associated clients)of the respective domain. The computing resources allocated to aparticular domain may not be accessible and/or visible to users of otherdomains. A system management component may restrict the visibility ofhypervisors and/or computing resources to only those which are in thedomain associated with a particular client. In general, a domainidentifier may be stored as an attribute for each hypervisor of the dataprocessing system in a memory associated with the hypervisor. As will beappreciated, allocation of hypervisors and/or computing resources may behardware-assisted—i.e., the system management component comprising oneor more hardware based processing units may execute program codeconfigured to manage the one or more domains of the data processingsystem.

In some embodiments, virtual machine creation will be restricted suchthat a user may not create a virtual machine in a domain for which theuser is not a member (i.e., associated therewith). Similarly,embodiments of the invention may restrict virtual machine migration suchthat a user may not migrate a virtual machine to a domain for which theuser is not a member. In some embodiments, user control of hypervisorsand/or computing resources may be restricted such that a user may notcontrol (through one or more user requests and/or user actions)hypervisors and/or computing resources that are allocated to a domainfor which the user is not a member.

In some embodiments of the invention, hypervisors and/or computingresources allocated to a domain may be temporarily allocated (i.e.,loaned, leased, etc), to another domain. In these embodiments, a domainmay temporarily host a virtual machine belonging to another domain.While a virtual machine and/or hypervisor of a first domain aretemporarily allocated to and/or hosted on a second domain, themanagement component may restrict access of clients and/or hypervisorsof the first domain to the temporarily allocated/hosted virtual machineor hypervisor.

Turning now to FIG. 8, this figure provides a flowchart 300 thatillustrates a sequence of operations that may be performed by the dataprocessing system to manage computing resource usage of one or moredomains consistent with embodiments of the invention. As shown, the dataprocessing system monitors computing resource usage of a first domain302) to determine whether a virtual machine action (e.g., migration of avirtual machine, booting of a virtual machine, creating a virtualmachine) is being performed by a hypervisor of the first domain (block304). If the data processing system does not detect that a virtualmachine action is being performed (“N” branch of block 304), the dataprocessing system continues monitoring the computing resources of thefirst domain (block 302).

In response to detecting a virtual machine action in the computingresources of the first domain (“Y” branch of block 304), the dataprocessing system determines computing resource utilization of the firstdomain (block 306). In general, the computing resources of the firstdomain may be available or utilized. Availability indicates that thecomputing resources may be used to perform operations (e.g., processtasks) and/or allocated to a virtual machine such that the virtualmachine may complete a virtual machine operation (e.g., for booting thevirtual machine, migrating the virtual machine, and/or creating thevirtual machine). However, if the computing resources are already beingused for processing tasks (also referred to as busy and/or utilized),then the computing resources may not be used to perform other operationsand/or allocated to a virtual machine for performance of virtual machineoperations (such as booting a virtual machine, migrating a virtualmachine, and/or creating a virtual machine). For example, if only twoprocessors are available for a domain, and a virtual machine beingbooted requires six processors, in this example, the data processingsystem may determine that resources of the domain are not available forbooting the virtual domain. Hence, as used herein, performing anoperation may refer to allowing for allocation of computing resources toa virtual machine to complete a virtual machine operation (e.g., boot,migration, creation). Therefore, the data processing system determineswhether the computing resources of the first domain are highly utilized(block 308). In general, highly utilized may be used to describe thatthe computing resources of a domain are not available due to usage suchthat additional operations may not be performed until completion ofother operations. If the computing resources are not highly utilized(“N” branch of block 308), the data processing system boots the virtualmachine on the computing resources of the first domain (block 310).

In response to determining that the computing resources are highlyutilized (“Y” branch of block 308), the data processing systemdetermines whether computing resource sharing is allowed for the firstdomain (block 312), i.e., whether any policies/restrictions of the firstdomain prohibit computing resource sharing (i.e., borrowing/loaning) ofresources. If the first domain does not allow computing resource sharing(“N” branch of block 312), the data processing system performs thevirtual machine action on the computing resources of the first domain(block 310). Since the computing resources are highly utilized, thevirtual machine action may be queued until computing resources in thefirst domain become available. If the first domain allows resourcesharing (“Y” branch of block 312), the data processing system determinesa second domain having available computing resources, where the seconddomain also allows resource sharing (block 314). The data processingsystem reserves (e.g. temporarily allocates) computing resources of thesecond domain for performing the virtual machine action associated withthe first domain (block 316), and the data processing system performsthe virtual machine action on the reserved computing resources of thesecond domain (block 318), where the temporarily allocated resources ofthe second domain may be managed by a data processing system of thefirst domain.

As will be appreciated, a virtual machine action may be booting avirtual machine, creating a new virtual machine, and/or migrating avirtual machine. For any resource sharing across domains, domainattributes/policies may be checked to determine whether a desired levelof computing resource sharing is permitted. For example, a securitypolicy of a particular domain may not permit hosting a virtual machineon computing resources of another domain.

FIG. 9 provides a flowchart 350 that illustrates a sequence ofoperations that may be performed by the data processing system to managecomputing resources of the one or more domains of the data processingsystem consistent with embodiments of the invention. The data processingsystem monitors usage of the computing resources of a domain (block 352)to detect when the computing resources of the first domain are highlyutilized (block 354). While the computing resources of the first domainare not highly utilized (“N” branch of block 354), the data processingsystem continues monitoring the computing resources of the first domain(block 352).

In response to detecting that the computing resources of the firstdomain are highly utilized, the data processing system determines asecond domain that has an available hypervisor and supports computingresource sharing (block 358). The data processing system temporarilyallocates the available hypervisor of the second domain to the firstdomain for a predefined time limit (block 360). Generally, the timelimit may be determined based on a policy associated with the firstdomain, the second domain, a workload associated with the first domain,a workload associated with the second domain, and/or other such factors.The data processing system maintains the temporarily allocatedhypervisor (and the computing resources managed by the hypervisor) atthe first domain for the duration of the time limit (block 362). Whenthe time limit expires (“Y” branch of block 362), the data processingsystem returns the hypervisor (and the computing resources managedthereby) to the second domain (block 364).

In some embodiments of the invention, the data processing system maymonitor computing resources of a domain to determine when computingresources of the domain are highly available. In such embodiments, thedata processing system may consolidate virtual machines of the domain toa subset of hypervisors and/or computing resources allocated to thedomain such that hypervisors and/or computing resources not of thesubset may be temporarily allocated to other domains. FIG. 10 provides aflowchart 400 that illustrates a sequence of operations that may beperformed by the data processing system to manage computing resources ofone or more domains of the data processing system consistent withembodiments of the invention. The data processing system monitors usageof the computing resources of a domain (block 402) to detect when thecomputing resources of the first domain are highly available (block404). As will be appreciated, highly available computing resourcesgenerally correspond to resources for which at least some processingcycles are not utilized or at least not utilized fully. For example,computing resources for which tasks have not been assigned may beconsidered highly available. As another example, computing resources forwhich some tasks have been assigned, but for which not all processingcycles are utilized may be considered highly available. As anotherexample, for a domain, if tasks of a first set of computing resourcesmay redistributed to a second set of computing resources of the domainsuch that the first set of computing resources may not be utilized, thecomputing resources of the first set of computing resources may behighly available. While the computing resources of the first domain arenot highly available (“N” branch of block 404), the data processingsystem continues monitoring the computing resources of the first domain(block 402).

In response to detecting that the computing resources of the firstdomain are highly available (“Y” branch of block 404), the dataprocessing system identifies one or more hypervisors and/or a first setof computing resources that may be temporarily allocated (block 408).The data processing system consolidates any virtual machines of theidentified hypervisor and/or first set of computing resources to otherhypervisors and/or computing resources of the domain (block 410). Thedata processing system determines a time limit for temporary allocationof the hypervisor and/or first set of computing resources (block 412).In general, the time limit may be determined based at least in part onone or more policies/settings of the domain and/or the data processingsystem. In addition, the time limit may be determined based at least inpart on at least one workload associated with the domain. For example,if all tasks of a workload assigned to the domain have been processed,the data processing system may determine a time limit that anticipatesassignment of a second workload such that the hypervisor and/orcomputing resources may be returned prior to assignment of the secondworkload. Generally, a determined time limit may comprise a determinedstart time and a determined end time for a temporary allocation period(i.e., loan period). Moreover, one or more policies/settings of thedomain may define a minimum and/or maximum time limit for whichcomputing resources may be temporarily allocated. The data processingsystem may temporarily allocate the one or more hypervisors and/orcomputing resources (block 414) for the determined time limit.

In general, temporary allocation of a hypervisor and computing resourcesallocated thereto may be utilized in data processing systems having oneor more domains that do not permit computing resource sharing. Bytemporarily allocating a hypervisor and computing resources of a firstdomain to a second domain, the temporarily allocated hypervisor andcomputing resources may be isolated from other hypervisors and computingresources of the first domain. Therefore, these embodiments mayfacilitate resource sharing/management in a cloud computing environmenthaving domains that generally do not permit sharing of resources due tosecurity and/or performance settings/rules.

In some embodiments of the invention, computing resource sharing acrossdomains may be managed using a token based allocation system. In theseembodiments of the invention, a management hypervisor of each domain maymonitor computing resource availability of the domain. A managementhypervisor may be selected from among a plurality of hypervisorsallocated to a domain based at least in part on availability ofcomputing resources of each of the hypervisors. For example, ahypervisor allocated to a domain having high availability may beselected as a management hypervisor. Periodically, the managementhypervisor of each domain may communicate tokens therebetween, where thetokens may indicate computing resources available for the managementhypervisor's domain. As will be appreciated, resource tokens may becommunicated from management hypervisors to other managementhypervisors. Generally, a token may include a domain identifier, anamount of computing resources (e.g., processing units, memory, and/orvirtualizations thereof) available for loaning, and/or a timelimit/duration for which the computing resources are available forloaning After any loaning of computing resources, every domain of thedata processing system may update an internal map of available, free,and/or busy resources that are temporarily loaned (i.e., temporarilyallocated) to other domains.

A domain in need of additional computing resources may (i.e., thecomputing resources allocated to the domain are highly utilized)communicate resource requests to other domains having availablecomputing resources. A requesting domain may identify other domainshaving available computing resources based at least in part on tokensreceived from a management hypervisor of each of the other domains.Domains that receive a resource request may determine computingresources to temporarily allocate responsive to the received request. Adomain that temporarily allocates computing resources for a request mayupdate an internal computing resource allocation map, where the map mayinclude information regarding all hypervisors, virtual machines, and/orcomputing resources of the domain. As will be appreciated tokens,requests, and/or responses may be encrypted to add additional layers ofsecurity between domains of a data processing system that implements acloud computing environment.

FIG. 11 provides a flowchart 450 that illustrates a sequence ofoperations that may be performed by the data processing system to managecomputing resources of the data processing system consistent with someembodiments of the invention. A first management hypervisor of a firstdomain may monitor for tokens communicated from one or more othermanagement hypervisors of other domains (block 452). The firstmanagement hypervisor processes the one or more tokens to update acomputing resource map maintained for the first domain (block 454). Ingeneral a computing resource map for a domain may include informationthat identifies computing resources/hypervisors allocated (andtemporarily allocated) to the domain, a status (i.e., available, busy,etc.) of such allocated computing resources/hypervisors, and/orcomputing resources/hypervisors of other domains available for temporaryallocation. The first management hypervisor determines whetheradditional computing resources are needed for any operations beingperformed by the first domain (e.g., virtual machine creation, virtualmachine booting, virtual machine migration, etc.) (block 456).

If additional computing resources are not needed (“N” branch of block456), the first management hypervisor continues monitoring for tokens(block 452). In response to determining that additional computingresources are needed for operations of the first domain (“Y” branch ofblock 456), the first management hypervisor analyzes the resource map ofthe first domain to determine if the appropriate computing resources areavailable for temporary allocation from another domain (block 458). Aswill be appreciated, the resource map for the first domain indicatescomputing resources that are available for temporary allocation fromother domains. Moreover, the resource map indicates any relevantinformation associated with such available computing resources,including for example, the type of computing resource (e.g., processor,memory, virtualized processor, virtualized memory, network interface,etc.), quantity, time limit, etc. Therefore, the first managementhypervisor determines whether the types and/or amount of computingresources available from other domains meet the additional needs of thefirst domain.

In response to determining that the appropriate computing resources arenot available from other domains (“N” branch of block 458), the firstmanagement hypervisor continues monitoring for tokens from othermanagement hypervisors (block 452). In response to determining that theappropriate computing resources are available from other domains (“Y”branch of block 458), the first management hypervisor communicates aresource request to a second management hypervisor associated with asecond domain that has the appropriate computing resources available fortemporary allocation (block 460). Since computing resource availabilitymay change after communication of a token, the resource request sent bythe first management hypervisor may be rejected by the second managementhypervisor if the computing resources are no longer available.Furthermore, the resource request may be rejected by the secondmanagement hypervisor if a policy/security setting of the first domainand/or the second domain does not permit sharing therebetween.Therefore, the first management hypervisor receives an indicationwhether the request was granted (block 462). If the request is notgranted by the second management hypervisor (“N” branch of block 462),the first management hypervisor determines whether any other domainshave appropriate computing resources available for temporary allocation(block 458). If the request is granted (“Y” branch of block 462), theoperations needing the additional computing resources are performed inthe first domain using the temporarily allocated computing resources(block 464), and the resource map of the first domain is updated toreflect the temporary allocation of computing resources thereto (block466).

Therefore, embodiments of the invention provide systems, methods, andcomputer program products for managing computing resources of a dataprocessing system by allocating computing resources and hypervisors todomains. In some embodiments, the data processing system may beimplemented in a cloud computing platform, for which one or moreclients/users may utilize computing resources of the data processingsystem for processing workloads. Embodiments of the invention allowcomputing resources and processes/operations of different clients to beisolated. In particular, a first set of virtual machines may be isolatedfrom running on a common hypervisor as a second set of virtual machinesto provide for increased security and/or reduced performance concerns.Furthermore, computing resources and/or hypervisors may be sharedsecurely across domains to facilitate efficient utilization ofvirtualized computing resources. As will be appreciated, differentclients (e.g., departments, companies, etc.) may be allocated computingresources using domains, such that some computing resources andhypervisors may be reserved in the data processing system. As will beappreciated, embodiments of the invention allow secure virtual machinecreation, migration, booting within a domain.

Embodiments of the invention may allocate hypervisors and/or computingresources to domains of a data processing system with a hardwareassisted management mechanism. For each hypervisor, a primary domainidentifier may be stored as an attribute of the hypervisor in a memoryassociated with the hypervisor, e.g., a non-volatile memory associatedwith the hypervisor. All hypervisors having a common primary domainidentifier are allocated to a common domain associated with such primarydomain identifier. Allocation of a hypervisor (and the computingresources managed by the hypervisor) to a particular domain may beperformed by an administrator and/or dynamically. In addition, eachhypervisor may include an owning domain identifier as an attribute thatmay be stored in a memory associated with the hypervisor. In general,the owning domain identifier corresponds to a domain to which thehypervisor is allocated, even temporarily. Hence, when a hypervisor istemporarily allocated from a first domain to a second domain, the owningdomain identifier may be set to identify the second domain, while theprimary domain identifier identifies the first domain. When a temporaryallocation period (also referred to as a loan period) expires, theowning domain identifier of the hypervisor is reset such that the owningdomain identifier identifies the first domain.

FIG. 12 provides an example of computing resource management and sharingacross domains at a hypervisor level for an example data processingsystem 500. As shown in FIG. 12, the data processing system 500 includesthree domains: ‘Customer A Domain’ 502 (referred to as “domain A”),‘Customer B Domain’ 504 (referred to as “domain B”), and ‘Customer CDomain’ 506 (referred to as “domain C”). Domain A includes fourhypervisors: ‘Server 1A’ 508, ‘Server 2A’ 510, ‘Server 3A’ 512, and‘Server 4A’ 514. Domain B includes four hypervisors: ‘Server 1B’ 516,‘Server 2B’ 518, ‘Server 3B’ 520, and ‘Server 4B’ 522. Domain C includesthree hypervisors: ‘Server 1C’ 524, ‘Server 2C’ 526, and ‘Server 3C’528.

Taking Server 1A 508 as an example, this hypervisor has been allocatedto domain A 502, and the primary domain identifier for Server 1A will be‘Customer A’. Moreover, Server 1A 508 has not been temporarily allocatedto any other domain, therefore the owning domain identifier for Server1A will be ‘Customer A’. As shown in this example, Server 3A 512 ofdomain A 502 has been temporarily allocated (i.e., loaned) to domain C506. Therefore, for Server 3A, the primary domain identifier will be‘Customer A’, and the owning domain identifier will be ‘Customer C’.Similarly Server 2B 518 of domain B 504 has been temporarily allocatedto domain C 506. Hence, for Server 2B, the primary domain identifierwill be ‘Customer B’, and the owning domain identifier will be ‘CustomerC’.

Consistent with some embodiments of the invention, a logical partitionof computing resources of a first domain may be temporarily allocated toa second domain. As will be appreciated, a logical partition ofcomputing resources may include an associated memory that stores aprimary domain identifier and/or an owning domain identifier. FIG. 13provides an example of computing resource management and sharing acrossdomains at a logical partition level for an example data processingsystem 550. The example data processing system 550 includes threedomains: ‘Customer A Domain’ 552 (referred to as “domain A”), ‘CustomerB Domain’ 554 (referred to as “domain B”), and ‘Customer C Domain’ 556(referred to as “domain C”). Domain A includes four hypervisors: ‘Server1A’ 558, ‘Server 2A’ 560, ‘Server 3A’ 562, and ‘Server 4A’ 564. Domain Bincludes four hypervisors: ‘Server 1B’ 566, ‘Server 2B’ 568, ‘Server 3B’570, and ‘Server 4B’ 572. Domain C includes three hypervisors: ‘Server1C’ 574, ‘Server 2C’ 576, and ‘Server 3C’ 578.

In this example, Server 3A manages four logical partitions of computingresources, where a first logical partition 580 managed by Server 3A isloaned (i.e., temporarily allocated) to domain C. In this example, thefirst logical partition would have a primary domain identifier of‘Customer A’, and the particular logical partition would have an owningdomain identifier of ‘Customer C’. In contrast, the other logicalpartitions managed by Server 3A that are not loaned would have a primarydomain identifier of ‘Customer A’ and an owning domain identifier of‘Customer A’. Similarly, Server 2B manages four logical partitions,where a second logical partition 582 managed by Server 2B is loaned todomain C. Therefore, the primary domain identifier of the second logicalpartition 582 would be ‘Customer B’, and the owning domain identifier ofthe second logical partition 582 would be ‘Customer C’.

Consistent with some embodiments of the invention a system managementcomponent of the data processing system may be configured to determinecomputing resource sharing policies of domains, hypervisors, and/orlogical partitions thereof upon discovery of the domains, hypervisors,and/or logical partitions in the data processing system. The systemmanagement component may store attributes, such as sharing policies, aprimary domain identifier, and/or an owning domain identifier for eachhypervisor in an inventory database. Generally, such attributes cannotbe overridden by clients of the data processing system and may only beconfigurable at an administrator level. In some embodiments of theinvention, domain attributes may be stored in non-volatile RAM of eachhypervisor such that one or more system management components may managecommon hypervisors and/or servers implementing hypervisors concurrently,and each system management component may be configured to discoverhypervisors and/or servers and group them under the same domainidentifier.

Furthermore, a domain may comprise one or more servers implementing oneor more hypervisors. For each domain, a list of users, clients,administrators, and/or privileges thereof may be maintained for eachdomain. Consistent with embodiments of the invention, role based accesscontrol (RBAC) may be implemented in the data processing system for themanagement, configuration, and/or utilization of computing resources ofdomains of the data processing system. Moreover, a super administratormay create domains and lower level system administrators with definedroles/privileges. As will be appreciated, profiles of systemadministrators may also have domain(s) associated with that profile sothat a system administrator may only be able to manage hypervisors andVMs within domains which the system administrator has access to. Forexample, a user may only be granted read access such that the user mayonly view the attributes of the system. In this example, the user maynot set/change attributes, policies, and/or configurations of the dataprocessing system. As another example, a user may be granted writeaccess such that the user may modify some attributes of the dataprocessing system. In this example, the user may set/change one or moreattributes for the data processing system.

Consistent with embodiments of the invention, a domain identifier may bea hexadecimal number generated by a pseudo-random number generator, or adomain identifier may be a readable string of text characters. A systemmanagement component of the data processing system manages computingresources allocation to each domain, temporary allocation of computingresources to domains, system level computing resource policies, domainlevel computing resource policies, hypervisor level computing resourcepolicies, and/or client related computing resource policies.Furthermore, the system management component may manage profiles ofusers that define access rights, domain affiliations, user specificsettings, and/or other such information.

Generally, a system management component, and an interface/consolegenerated thereby may support commands for setting domain attributes(e.g., primary domain identifier, owning domain identifier).Furthermore, the system management component may be configured toperform operations to loan computing resources and/or a hypervisor to adifferent domain. The system management component may be configured toenforce time limits, where a time limit may include a specific starttime and end time for a loan period.

In general, the system management component may be configured to enforcepolicies. Hence, temporary allocations of computing resources and/orhypervisors are reported to the system management component. While thesystem management component may be described as a single component, theinvention is not so limited. Consistent with some embodiments of theinvention, a policy management module may be independently configuredfor the data processing system, each server, each domain, one or morehypervisors, etc. In such embodiments, the system management componentmay automatically identify one or more policy management modules of thedata processing system by querying a communication network of the dataprocessing system.

As an example, a directory agent/service agent may be configured tomonitor the communication network of the data processing system. When apolicy management module starts up, an associated communication addressmay be registered with the directory/service agent, and the systemmanagement component may be configured to identify the policy managementmodule from the directory/service agent. Moreover, each systemmanagement component of a data processing system may send a multicastquery to discover policy management modules of the data processingsystem.

The system management component may comprise a policy enforcementcomponent configured to enforce any policies maintained by the systemmanagement component and/or a policy management module. Generally, thepolicy enforcement component is configured to monitor time limits forloans of computing resources. In response to expiration of a time limit,the policy enforcement component is configured to reset an owning domainidentifier for a corresponding temporarily allocated hypervisor and/orcorresponding temporarily allocated computing resources.

FIG. 14 provides a table 600 that illustrates example computing resourceloan information for the data processing system of FIG. 12. As discussedabove, with respect to FIG. 12, Server 3A is temporarily allocated fromthe Customer A domain to the Customer C domain. In this example, thetime limit for the loan of Server 3A is defined as having a start timeof 1:00 AM and an end time of 6:00 PM. Similarly, Server 2B istemporarily allocated from the Customer B domain to the Customer Cdomain. In this example, the time limit for the loan of Server 2B isdefined as having a start time of 2:00 PM and an end time of 11:00 PM.

Consistent with some embodiments of the invention, a first domain thathas loaned computing resources to a second domain may dynamically extendthe time limit. In such embodiments, the first domain may communicate atime extension to the second domain and the system management component(e.g., the policy management module and/or the policy enforcementcomponent). Furthermore, if a time limit is about to expire for acomputing resource loan from a first domain to a second domain, thesecond domain may be given preference to borrow the same computingresources again as compared to a third domain in need of the computingresources. Such configuration may increase efficiency by reducingconfiguration and setup times moving computing resources to a differentborrowing domain.

Embodiments of the invention generally provide secure data processingimprovements for data processing systems configured for use by more thanone client. Consistent with embodiments of the invention, thecommunications exchanged between domains, hypervisors, etc. may beencrypted (e.g., symmetric/asymmetric key exchange) to prevent “man inthe middle” attacks. Furthermore, if a hypervisor is loaned from a firstdomain to a second domain, access privileges for users will bedetermined based on the owning domain identifier, such that users of thefirst domain may not be able to access the hypervisor or managedresources for the period of the loan. The policy enforcement componentmay be configured to analyze user actions/requests and enforce accesspolicies based at least in part on the owning domain identifier of ahypervisor/computing resources identified in an action/request.

Furthermore, embodiments of the invention limit creation of virtualmachines only to domains for which the requesting user has is permittedto access. The policy enforcement module may analyze a domain identifierof a user and the domain attributes of a hypervisor that the user isattempting to access. The policy enforcement component may be configuredto analyze a user access permission level to control virtual machinecreation on domain resources. In addition, embodiments of the inventionmay limit virtual machine migration based on domain attributes of anoriginating hypervisor, domain attributes of a target hypervisor, and/ora domain of a user associated with the migration. As will beappreciated, if a hypervisor is loaned from a first domain to a seconddomain, then the primary domain identifier and the owning domainidentifier will differ. In such situation, a user access privilege checkmay be based on the owning domain identifier. When a virtual machineneeds to be migrated from a first hypervisor to a second hypervisor, themigration is only allowed if the first hypervisor and second hypervisorare in the same domain. As will be appreciated, if the second hypervisoris loaned to the domain of the first hypervisor, then the migrationwould be allowed. Hence, the virtual machine migration will beallowed/denied by the policy enforcement component by checking policiesand loans through the policy management module.

Therefore, embodiments of the invention may address shortcomings in dataprocessing technology by performing dynamic platform optimization fordata processing systems. In particular, embodiments of the invention mayrestore processor-memory affinity for allocated processor and memoryresources of logically-partitioned data processing systems, therebyincreasing efficiency and performance of such data processing systems.Furthermore, embodiments of the invention address shortcomings ofconventional systems that may become sub-optimally configured over time.Embodiments of the invention perform dynamic platform optimization of adata processing system automatically and responsive to system resourcechanges by reallocating processor and memory resources of logicalpartitions.

While the present invention has been illustrated by a description ofvarious embodiments and while these embodiments have been described inconsiderable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants torestrict, or in any way limit, the scope of the appended claims to suchdetail. For instance, another embodiment consistent with the inventionsupports migration between logical partitions on the same computer. Assuch, additional advantages and modifications will readily appear tothose skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects istherefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatusand method, and illustrative example shown and described. Accordingly,departures may be made from such details without departing from thespirit or scope of applicant's general inventive concept.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for managing logically partitionedcomputing resources of a data processing system configured with aplurality of hypervisors that each manages one or more logicalpartitions of the computing resources, and each hypervisor and logicalpartitions managed thereby are allocated to a domain of a plurality ofdomains, the method comprising: monitoring the logical partitions andhypervisors allocated to a first domain to determine whether additionalcomputing resources are needed for the first domain; in response todetermining that additional computing resources are needed for the firstdomain: determining a second domain having available computingresources; and using at least a portion of the available computingresources of the second domain by the first domain.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: prior to using the portion of the availablecomputing resources of the second domain, temporarily allocating theportion of the available computing resources to the first domain fromthe second domain.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: settingan owning domain identifier associated with the portion of the availablecomputing resources to identify the first domain.
 4. The method of claim2, further comprising: determining a time limit associated with thetemporary allocation of the portion of available computing resources. 5.The method of claim 2, wherein the portion of the available computingresources of the second domain comprises at least one hypervisor and theone or more logical partitions managed thereby.
 6. The method of claim2, wherein the portion of the available computing resources of thesecond domain comprises at least one logical partition.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: prior to using the portion of the availablecomputing resources of the second domain, reserving the portion of theavailable computing resources with at least one particular hypervisorassociated with the portion of the available computing resources.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring the logical partitionsand hypervisors allocated to the second domain to determine whethercomputing resources of the second domain are available.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: consolidating at least one virtual machineof a first logical partition managed by a first hypervisor of the seconddomain to a second logical partition managed by a second hypervisor ofthe second domain to thereby make the computing resources of the firstlogical partition available.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein usingthe portion of the available computing resources of the second domain bythe first domain comprises: booting a virtual machine of the firstdomain on the portion of the available computing resources of the seconddomain.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determiningwhether a computing resource policy of the first domain and a computingresource policy of the second domain restrict computing resource sharingtherebetween, wherein using the portion of the available computingresources of the second domain to perform the at least one operation forthe first domain is in response to determining that computing resourcesharing is not restricted between the first domain and the seconddomain.